Health care….do we have it?

It is amazing to me how anyone can cope with the medical system in the US. People are always telling us that we don’t want the systems other countries have but I have decided that no place is without problems.

In addition to the problems created by the insurance companies (who are running it all) we also have technology creating havoc. Many physician’s offices are hiring outside tech groups to handle things that each office used to handle. I have encountered two of those systems lately.

One involved a prescription that was denied by my initial insurance company as being too new and expensive. The docs office hired a company who produce the information needed for the insurance company to approve the medicine. Previously the office had to hire extra people to create this kind of paper work. Now it is farmed out. The system itself is not unreasonable but when the patient has no idea where the rx went or who has it …not good. It disappeared into the void and only reappeared when I physically went to the office.

The second was a request for medical records for an appointment at a different facility. The docs office now has someone else managing their medical records and confusion ensued when no one knew where they were.

The system is changing so fast that no one can keep up and I think we are going to see RN’s becoming advocates for patients to surf the system.

The world over medical care is a worrisome issue. When I was a child there was no insurance for medical care and if you had no money you just didn’t get care. Now with various systems in place in some countries there is the possibility to get care if you need it. However, no system is perfect and each has road blocks to getting care.

For those of us with mental health issues the access to care has been bleak. Hopefully things are getting better and with more mental illness being linked to our physical selves there is hope that it will no longer be the step-child of health care.

Everyone should have access to good care but the world is a long way away from seeing it happen. Many poor countries have nothing. I guess those of us with any care should be grateful for what we have. May it continue to improve.